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Chapter 8 Framing Shared Values

Reason and Trust in Environmental Governance

Clark Miller

May 1, 2006

Chapter in Brief
Annotated Resources
Bibliography (Download in PDF: 25KB)

Chapter in Brief

Clark Miller examines the implications of the case studies for global environmental governance. While taking into account the culturally grounded ways in which people come to hold environmental values, he proposes three conceptual lenses through which to view environmental values related to governance: framing, styles of reasoning, and trust. Framing is the process "by which communities arrive at shared conceptual frameworks"(Page 380). Styles of reasoning are the ways in which people connect their observations about the world and framing of events to analytic methods and approaches. And trust in institutions is the crucial element in establishing standards, or “shared styles of reasoning,” that can achieve public legitimacy. After examining contrasting examples of framing and styles of reasoning in our case studies, Miller concludes with a lesson for global governance: we need to build institutions of global environmental governance that are able to acknowledge and legitimize the expression of plurality in the world system, especially with regard to how individuals and communities understand their place in nature and society.

Annotated Resources

Ian Hacking, "'Style' for Historians and Philosophers," in I. Hacking, Historical Ontology. Cambridge: Harvard, 2002.
In this essay, Hacking introduces the concept of styles of reasoning in discussing variations of methods of inquiry, forms of evidence, objects of study, etc., that shape how distinct social groups analyze and make sense of the world around them.

Sheila Jasanoff, "Harmonization—The Politics of Reasoning Together," in The Politics of Chemical Risk. ed. Roland Bal and Willem Halfmann. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1998.
In this article, Jasanoff argues for a new vision and approach to international harmonization of environmental standards, focused on the need to understand in detail variations in the styles of reasoning cultures use to assess and manage risk.

Steve Rayner and Elizabeth Malone, eds., Human Choice and Climate Change. Columbus, OH: Battelle, 1998.
This volume is an outstanding synthesis of the social science literature pertaining to environmental science and policy.

Clark A. Miller, "The Dynamics of Framing Environmental Values and Policy: Four Models of Societal Processes," Environmental Values Vol. 9 (2000): 211-233.
This article analyzes the social processes by which communities develop, test, and winnow divergent framings of environmental values and risks.

Sheila Jasanoff and Marybeth Long Martello, Earthly Politics: Local and Global in Environmental Governance. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004.
This volume of essays explores the intersections of local and global in environmental governance, with a particular emphasis on the ways in which environmental localization and especially the phenomenon of local knowledge has emerged as a counter-narrative to the politics of environmental globalization.

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Advance Praise

This excellent book makes a key contribution to the literature on environmental movements by providing rich case material pertaining to four environmentally critical countries. The book's movement from specific cases to general discussion is particularly valuable. Forging Environmentalism will inform and instruct practitioners, students, and scholars alike.

—JAMES GUSTAVE SPETH
Yale University

The cross-cultural study of environmentalism must now take inspiration from this amazing book which almost miraculously explains the deepest motives of environmental policy, law, and politics by comparing important case studies from China, Japan, India, and the United States. These studies, all brilliantly described and deeply researched, show the reader how concepts such as legality, populism, justice, tenacity, and caring differ fundamentally across cultural contexts and yet retain a human commonality. This collection of riches will reward anyone who wants to understand environmentalism across nations and cultures.

—MARK SAGOFF
University of Maryland, College Park

Forging Environmentalism is an outstanding addition to the literature on environmental policymaking. The volume explores the decision making process in four countries—Japan, China, India, and the United States—through a set of rich case studies, each of which underscores the importance of culture in shaping understandings and approaches to environmental policy. Editor Joanne Bauer does a masterful job of weaving together these individual cases into a seamless story that makes the book valuable for specialist and student alike.

—ELIZABETH C. ECONOMY
Council On Foreign Relations